In 2000, during the 20th annual race, a resistance group led by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), a descendant of 1770s American Revolutionary Thomas Paine, plans to rebel against Mr. President's regime by sabotaging the race, killing most of the drivers, and taking Frankenstein hostage as leverage against the President. The group is assisted by Paine's great granddaughter Annie (Simone Griffeth), Frankenstein's latest navigator. She plans to lure him into an ambush to be replaced by a double. Despite a pirated national broadcast made by Ms. Paine herself, the resistance's disruption of the race is covered up by the government and instead blamed on the French, who are also blamed for ruining the country's economy and telephone system.
At first, the Resistance's plan works. Nero is killed when he runs over a booby-trapped doll planted by the Resistance, which he mistakes for a real baby and trying to run it over in his psychopatic nature. Matilda drives off a cliff while following a fake detour set up by the Resistance and Calamity Jane drives over a land mine after witnessing Matilda's death. This leaves only Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe in the race.
As Frankenstein nonchalantly survives every attempt made on his life during the race, Annie comes to discover that the Frankenstein she knows is anything but a willing government stooge, nor is he the original one. The current Frankenstein is, in fact, one of a number of random wards of the state trained exclusively to race in the role. "When one is used up, they bring in another," he tells Annie. The current Frankenstein also reveals that he has his own plans: when he wins the race and shakes hands with Mr. President, he will detonate a grenade which has been implanted in his prosthetic right hand (he calls it his "hand grenade"), which he has kept concealed by keeping his glove on at all times (even while undressed). His plan goes awry, however, when Machine Gun Joe attacks and Annie kills him using Frankenstein's "hand" grenade.
Having successfully outmaneuvered both the rival drivers and the Resistance, Frankenstein is declared the winner, although he is wounded and unable to carry out his original grenade attack plan. Annie instead dons Frankenstein's disguise and plans to stab Mr. President while standing in for him on the podium. As the president congratulates "Frankenstein" for his victory, in the process declaring war on the French and appointing Frankenstein leader of the war, Annie is mistakenly shot and wounded by her own grandmother, who is desperate for revenge against Frankenstein for having supposedly killed her during the race (he'd actually just drugged her). The real Frankenstein takes advantage of the confusion and rams the President's stage with his car, finally fulfilling his lifelong desire to kill him.
In the epilogue, Annie and Frankenstein marry. Frankenstein, now President, abolishes the race and plans to rebuild the country. However, Junior Bruce starts to protest against it. When unable to find a moral reason to keep the race on, he starts shouting that it is a way of life, to keep America satisfied, to give entertainment and people what they want, now desperate to have the race still on. Frankenstein, annoyed, runs him over with his car.

Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars in his review, deriding its violence and lamenting its appeal to small children.[4] However, during a review of The Fast and the Furious on At the Movies, Ebert named Death Race 2000 among movies that make a "great tradition of summer drive-in movies" that expose a "summer exploitation mentality in a clever way".[citation needed]
The film has garnered critical acclaim over the years, having a score of "85%" Fresh on the film critics site, Rotten Tomatoes, deeming it fresh.
The film has long been regarded as a cult hit,[3] and was often viewed as superior to Rollerball, made in the same year; another dystopian science fiction sports film, similarly focusing on the use of sports as an "opiate".[